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Mozilla Firefox 38 has been released. It adds the <picture> element, Ruby annotation support, and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a form of digital rights management for HTML5 video. It also automatically downloads Adobe's Primetime Content Decryption Module (CDM) on 32-bit versions of Firefox on Windows Vista and newer Windows systems. The Register reports:
The nonprofit grudgingly agreed to add EME support to Firefox last year, despite the vocal objections of both Mozilla's then-CTO Brendan Eich and the Free Software Foundation. "Nearly everyone who implements DRM says they are forced to do it" the FSF said at the time, "and this lack of accountability is how the practice sustains itself."
Nonetheless, Mozilla promoted Firefox 38 to the Release channel on Tuesday, complete with EME enabled – although it said it's still doing so reluctantly. "We don't believe DRM is a desirable market solution, but it's currently the only way to watch a sought-after segment of content," Mozilla senior veep of legal affairs Danielle Dixon-Thayer said in a blog post.
The first firm to leap at the chance to shovel its DRM into Firefox was Adobe, whose Primetime Content Delivery Module for decoding encrypted content shipped with Firefox 38 on Tuesday. Thayer said various companies, including Netflix, are already evaluating Adobe's tech to see if it meets their requirements. Mozilla says that because Adobe's CDM is proprietary "black box" software, it has made certain to wrap it in a sandbox within Firefox so that its code can't interfere with the rest of the browser. (Maybe that's why it took a year to get it integrated.)
The CDM will issue an alert when it's on a site that uses DRM-wrapped content, so people who don't want to use it will have the option of bowing out. If you don't want your browser tainted by DRM at all, you still have options. You can disable the Adobe Primetime CDM so it never activates. If that's not good enough, there's a menu option in Firefox that lets you opt out of DRM altogether, after which you can delete the Primetime CDM (or any future CDMs from other vendors) from your hard drive. Finally, if you don't want DRM in your browser and you don't want to bother with any of the above, Mozilla has made available a separate download that doesn't include the Primetime CDM and has DRM disabled by default.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday May 13 2015, @10:54PM
I'll try it out when they come up with an open source scheme for DRM. Ie. one that is provably safe, other than provably "fair".
I have a special hate for Adobe. Remember the Flash days?
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @11:43PM
I have a special hate for Adobe. Remember the Flash days?
As a security cog I am still dealing with them. Yesterday's Adobe security patches for Flash Player & AIR fix at least 18 security holes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @08:39AM
Umm we are still in the "flash days" or do we call it "flash and silverlight days" now. It can be scary to see how much access your web browser has and what it tells the world. Plug in your phone and websites can see what make and model it is. "Chrome days"?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 14 2015, @09:45AM
We will have an open source scheme for DRM at the same day we will have dry water and bright darkness. DRM is, by its nature, hiding away from the user some information that is necessary for operation of the software. Open source is, by its nature, allowing the user to see all information necessary for its operation. Without hiding, it cannot be DRM, and with hiding, it cannot be open source.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.